Frozen in fear, I try not to move or allow myself to touch either of the boys beside me, despite how cramped it is in the back seat.

“Text your mother and tell her you won’t be coming home tonight,” Sebastian tells me softly.

“I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m sixteen, if I don’t come home she’ll call the cops,” I snap, not caring how angry the terror I’m feeling is making me sound. I should probably try to be nice, to charm these scary boys into letting me go, but with all the crazy things he’s told me so far, I don’t think it’ll work.

“Tell her you’re sleeping at Courtney’s house then,” he says, reaching out and cradling my jaw again.

“She won’t believe me.”

“Why not?” he snaps, his grip tightening.

“Because I don’t stay over at her house, I’ve never stayed there because her parents don’t like me. If we have a sleepover, it’s always at my house.”

Tutting like the truth is incredibly inconvenient, he sighs. “Fine, tonight, I’ll return you to your home, we’ll have to come to some arrangement for the future.”

Relief at the fact that apparently they don’t plan to kill me and dump my body tonight makes another bout of tremors ricochet through my body.

“Are you cold? Why are you shaking?” Sebastian asks, taking off his blazer and draping it over my shoulders before he clicks my seat belt into place.

“I’m shaking because I’m scared,” I admit, the words falling from my lips before I can swallow them back.

“Scared of what?”

“You,” I say, incredulous.

His eyebrows arch and he looks down on me with shock etched across his expression. “You’re scared of me, even though I’ve told you not to be?”

“You have basically kind of kidnapped her, bro,” Hunter says, looking over at us from the front seat.

“She’s my girlfriend, you can’t kidnap your own girlfriend,” Sebastian declares passionately.

A lump fills my throat and I can’t breathe. Girlfriend. He thinks I’m his girlfriend. “I’m n-not your gir-girlfriend,” I stammer out through my tight throat.

“Would fiancée make you feel better? We can’t get married until you turn seventeen, but I’m more than happy to make it official now and then you can take the time to plan the wedding of your dreams.”

My mouth parts and a helpless gasp falls from my lips. I try to make more noise to argue, to try to escape, but blackness starts to filter into my vision as it gets harder and harder to breathe. Lifting my hand I claw at my throat, but my limbs feel heavy right before the darkness overwhelms me and I descend into silence.

6

SEBASTIAN

The hand I’m not holding lifts into the air, flops about uncoordinatedly, before it falls back to her lap. Her eyes widen manically and her mouth opens, but no sound comes out. Her eyes roll all the way back and she slumps down to the seat, her head rolling to the side and resting against Clay’s arm.